The present invention relates to an image display apparatus with an image display section having a plurality of substantially sheet-like image display mediums bundled up and an image display method using the image display apparatus, and more particularly to an image display apparatus and an image display method in which an electric paper sheet (electronic paper) is applied to the image display mediums.
At present, the diffusion of a personal computer, a digital still camera, a digital video camera and so on enables a large number of photographed images to be comfortably reproduced by an image display apparatus through the personal computer. For example, software of an electronic album is executed on the personal computer, and the image photographed by the digital camera is taken in and then displayed on an image display apparatus so as to be appreciated. Also, a moving picture photographed by the digital video camera is reproduced by exclusive software so as to be enjoyed.
Also, an image display apparatus only for displaying and appreciating a digital image photographed by a digital camera or the like is put on the market. For example, there is a digital photo frame made by Sony Corporation. The photographed image can be appreciated by using the exclusive device in such a manner as to turn over the leaves of a conventional paper album.
However, in the case where the software of the electronic album is executed on the personal computer, the size of a display image depends on the size of the image display apparatus used for the computer, and the number of images to be displayed simultaneously is also limited. Therefore, even if a large number of images are displayed, the image size must be made small, and it is difficult to appreciate the image in detail. Also, the operation of the computer in image display is also complicated.
Also, even in the exclusive image display apparatus for displaying and appreciating the digital image, in the case where the image is appreciated with a size of a certain degree or more, the number of images displayed at the same time is limited, and in the case where the image is displayed in the form of a slide show, a waiting period of time for changing over the image display is lengthened, which makes a person appreciating the image displeased. Thus, it is impossible to enjoy the image with ease without waiting for the change-over of the image display as in the conventional paper album.
Incidentally, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. Hei 11-316397 discloses a technique in which an electric paper sheet is applied to an electronic display. On the other hand, an article about the electric paper sheet (electronic paper) is disclosed in ASCII, February edition of 2000, pp. 220 to 225, and March edition of 2000, pp. 242 to 247.
According to the above publication and the above article, uncountable very small spheres that are painted with white and black half by half freely float with an oil fluid in a gap between two plastic sheets, and when an electric field is applied to the spheres from the external of the plastic sheets, the spheres are rotated and fixed, and in this situation, the white and black surfaces are directed to the surface of the plastic sheets by the rotation of the spheres so that the patterns and characters of white and black can float up, and it is noted the above principle can be applied to a color image.
Also, according to the above publication and article, transparent microcapsules each having a diameter of about 1/10 mm in the interior of which a large number of white spheres float in a blue liquid are two-dimensionally covered on a sheet, and an electric field is applied to the sheet from both surfaces thereof, to thereby move the white spheres within the microcapsules in one direction by the Coulomb force. As a result, the color of sheet on a portion of the microcapsules whose white spheres have been moved in one direction is changed from blue to white. The color image can be reproduced on the basis of the above principle.
The above-mentioned electronic paper has such advantages that because an image displayed once by application of an electric field is retained without disappearing until a succeeding electric field is applied, the power consumption is reduced as compared with the conventional liquid crystal display, and that the electronic paper has no visibility angle dependency that extremely changes the contrast of the image in accordance with a viewing direction unlike the liquid crystal display, although it has not been put in practical use yet.
Further, a film liquid crystal using a ferroelectric liquid crystal has been developed as electronic paper, although it also has not been put in practical use yet.